ON ALCHEMICAL EQUIPMENT IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY, A.D. 61 



(4) Five large earthenware Jars (Bardni), glazed inside, and provided with lids, 

 for heating purposes. 



(5) Three earthenware Pots (Qudur) glazed inside, for the long Uthal that is used in 

 volatilising 1 Tin and other things, together with three Covers {Mikabbat) of un- 

 glazed earthenware for covering the Uthal. 



(6) (a) A piece of coarsely- woven Hair Cloth, 2 used in the process of Hall 3 for Tin and 



other things. This process occupies 40 days. 



(b) A glass Funnel {Qim*)% over which the hair-cloth is stretched, for the recep- 



tion of whatever has to be dissolved. 



(c) A large glass Bottle {Qinninah), in the mouth of which the funnel is placed, so 

 that the dissolved substance drops into the bottle. 



(d) A felt covered Basket (Sallak) or Cage {Qa/as) inverted over the bottle to 

 preserve the medicine from injury when in the dung. 



(7) A stone Mortar {Hawan) for pounding sulphur and similar substances. 



(8) A large Cup for washing mercury. 



(9) (a) A large Crucible (Butaqah). 

 (b) A Furnace I {Kur). 



{c) Bellows {Min/akh). 

 (d) A pair of Pincers {Kalbatan). 

 {e) A ' Mashak ' (Ladle). 5 

 All these are for use in the fusing together of Mercury and Arsenic Sulphide. 



(10) A Cauldron {Mirjal), or Pot (Tznjfr), in which to dissolve alum. 



I See antea, p. 60, note (3). 



* Lit. " a piece of hair sieve." 



S A convenient translation of the important word Hall (lit. ' loosening ') is ' Dissolution.' It is defined in the Mafdtlhu-l-' Ulum 

 {ed. cit., p 264) as the reducing of solid substances to the state of water, and a good idea of one method of performing it may be ob- 

 tained from the following translation of the article on Hall that is given in the Syrio-Arabic treatise (loc. cit., Text, p. 81). 



"Dissolution. — Take the substance after it has undergone the process of ' Ceration ' (cf. Stapleton, Memoirs A .S.B., I, p. 39, 

 text, and note (2), and having pounded it finely, place it in a hair sieve that is not fitted with a hoop. You must then join the sides of 

 the sieve and tie them together with a very strong string made of hair. Next, you take a pot, and having pierced a hole in the bottom 

 large enough tor the string to enter, you hang the thread from it. The pot should be inverted on its face and under it is placed a cup 

 of 'ghadhdr,' large and wide. The sieve should be suspended by the string in the middle of the pot, and the pot placed over the 

 cup in such a way as to cover it. 



" Then without disturbing the apparatus, you bury it in a large quantity of moist dung. Change the dung every 10 days. The 

 substance will gradually dissolve and fall from the sieve in drops of red water. Take it and put it on one side. Dissolution requires 

 42 days or more. If you heat a dirhatn, and let fall on to it a single drop of this water, it will colour both its exterior and interior." 

 For a hypothetical reconstruction of this apparatus, see Plate I, Fig. 4. 



In the process described in the text, and figured hypothetically in Plate I, Fig. 5, the bottle — after the funnel containing the 

 hair cloth and substance has been placed in position — is covered with a felt-covered basket (Qafas), which is then packed round with 

 dung. In the course of 40 days the substance deliquesces by the absorption of the vapours given off from the dung and the resultant 

 liquid collects in the bottle. 



+ The well-known dictionary Lisdnu-l-' Arab (written in the 13th cent, but based upon works of the 10th cent.) has the following 

 note on the Qim'. " It is that which is placed in the mouth of water, wine, and milk skins when they are being filled. Its name is de- 

 rived from x+j qam' } to enter, because it enters into the mouth of the vessel." (Balaq ed.). 



b Misha-k is taken to be the Arabicised form of the Persian^iUo mdshu, a ladle. If this is correct, the list of instruments for 

 fusing that is given in the 'Ainu-s-^an'ah becomes identical with that given on p. 256 of the Mafdtifyu-l-'Ulum. 



